Mary Dorna (1891-1971) wrote wonderful, melancholy ‘italics’ even before the war, which were admired by Annie MG Schmidt and Simon Carmiggelt. To rescue Dorna from oblivion, a small selection from her work at Nijgh & Van Ditmar was published last year: Let’s throw Dad out. ‘In no way could I ever please my father; I wasn’t one of the sorts of children he liked, inside and out.’
In Ladies in the snow are ten short stories that Mary Dorna – who was blind at the end of her life – dictated to journalist Lida Polak. In those stories we see Dorna’s alter ego, the rebellious girl (‘the unruly child’ Carmiggelt called her) who yearns for a bohemian existence. In ‘End’, the girl becomes fascinated by one Betsy. She goes home with Betsy and is allowed to eat bokking and drink gin. Betsy’s mother turns out to hook men professionally. Her father never allowed the girl to come there again. Only later does she see Betsy again. He went soliciting, went bankrupt, and was admitted to a clinic for alcoholics. Closing sentence: ‘It seems it is not good to drink gin from teacups at a young age.’
Mary Dorna: Ladies in the snow. Delivered by CJ Aarts and MC van Etten. Statenhofpers; € 19.50.